Between 2009 and 2011, the Canadian energy company Griffiths paid millions in bribes to secure exclusive rights to oil and gas extraction in Chad. It admitted to paying a US$2 million cash bribe to the wife of Chad’s ambassador to Canada at the time, and paid the government a US$40 million ‘signing bonus’ for the contract. In 2013, Griffiths was fined over US$10 million for foreign bribery, while Chadian officials involved have been charged by the US Department of Justice for soliciting and accepting bribes.